Mia Mychajliw is currently an undergraduate student at the University at Buffalo, pursuing a degree in public health on the track of pre-medicine. Next spring she is applying to the University at Buffalo School of Public Health 3+2 program to obtain her master’s in public health. After earning her master’s degree she plans to go on to medical school with dreams of becoming a surgeon. Her career goal is to serve as a physician while working to change the systems that actively harms those with the most need.
She is currently a student researcher for the department of Community Health & Health Behaviors in the UB School of Public Health. She has been involved in various research projects, and has had the opportunity to collaborate with students of the allied health professions. For a research publication on dental homes, she conducted an extensive literature review on the socioeconomic disparities related to dental health in America. While volunteering at the Seneca Babcock Food Pantry, she helped collect needs assessment data that will be used to inform community health interventions in the community. Through collaboration with University at Buffalo medical students, she conducted an extensive literature review on the importance of school physicals and contributed to the writing process for the research paper.
Mia is passionate about public health in action. An example of this that she is especially proud of is her work at The Tool Library. She started working at The Tool Library through a summer internship on their newly developed Lead Safe Tool Borrowing Program. Her responsibilities included conducting tabling events and outreach to spread the word about the resources available with the Lead Safe Program. She also gave presentations at the Lead-Safe Work Practices training held by the Erie County Department of Health to talk about Tool Library resources. As a current member of the NYS Public Health Association, she will be presenting a poster at the organization’s upcoming conference about The Tool Library’s Lead Safe Tool Borrowing Program.
One of the most rewarding experiences Mia gets to do is screen patients for social determinants of health at the Lighthouse Free Medical Clinic on Friday nights. The clinic is unique because it is equipped to offer referrals for getting insurance coverage, primary care, dental care, gynecological services, fresh food delivered to patients who are food insecure, and so much more. Assisting patients that are under-resourced has been a painful reminder of how rampant health disparities are in Western New York. Mia believes that it is her life’s purpose to help others live healthier lives; she will work to tackle the systemic barriers that force too many people to barely survive when they deserve to thrive.